Murder of Meredith Kercher

This doesn't make the Knox camp look very mature really does it? It looks far better for her if her camp remain dignified.

eddie wrote:This doesn't make the Knox camp look very mature really does it? It looks far better for her if her camp remain dignified.

Eddie that Mignini guy is weird.

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2006/03/18/trapped_in_his_own_thriller/

Trapped in his own thriller
Life was fine for Douglas Preston as he worked on his latest book.Then he became part of the story.

By Jessica Brilliant Keener, Globe Correspondent | March 18, 2006

Douglas Preston, the best-selling thriller writer, left his home in coastal Maine to vacation in Italy with his family in February. Two weeks into the trip, Preston was summonsed to appear before Judge Giuliano Mignini in Perugia. He was given an official warning for perjury, false testimony, and withholding evidence. ''The judge verbally accused me of planting evidence, and of being an accessory to murder after the fact, which scared the hell out of me," he says by phone.

The charges are related to a nonfiction book Preston has co-written about a serial killer known as the Monster of Florence, who murdered and mutilated 14 people in the hills of Florence from 1974 to 1985. The case is one of the longest, most expensive criminal investigations in Italian history. In ''Dolci Colline di Sangue" (''Sweet Bloody Hills"), which will be published in Italy next month, Preston and his Italian coauthor, crime journalist Mario Spezi, criticize Mignini for the way he is running the Monster of Florence investigation. According to Preston, Mignini believes the killings were the work of a Satanic sect, dating to the Middle Ages, that needed female body parts as offerings to the devil in Black Masses. Preston and Spezi think this theory is hogwash and have said so. Preston says Spezi, who covered the crimes during the '80s, is also being investigated for a murder the police believe is related to the case, as a way to intimidate him.

In 2004 Spezi appeared on Italian television and ridiculed Mignini's investigation. Shortly after, on Nov. 18, police showed up at Spezi's apartment in Florence at 6 in the morning and seized his papers, computer, and the book manuscript. The search warrant, signed by Mignini, stated that Spezi was under investigation for 18 crimes labeled ''A" through ''R," all unspecified and listed as ''segreto" (''secret"). According to Preston, Spezi has never been told what these crimes are.

In response, Preston contacted PEN International, a writers association whose mission includes fighting intimidation of journalists. In January 2005, after an investigation by PEN's London office, Sara Whyatt, program director for PEN's Writers in Prison Committee, sent Mignini and the Italian prosecutor a letter of protest on behalf of Spezi. After that, the police returned much of the coauthors' material, and Preston and Spezi finished the book.

Preston's publisher, Ornella Robbiati of RCS Libri, says she's not happy about the situation and doesn't want to be involved. ''Journalist Spezi and [the] main police investigator hate each other," says Robbiati, whose publishing company is Italy's largest. ''Why? I don't know. It's a complicated matter, this Monster of Florence. If they [Preston and Spezi] think they have discovered something useful to police and law, they should say something without insulting police and judges -- but it sounds too personal in my opinion, now."

At police headquarters in Italy in February, Preston says Mignini replayed a telephone conversation Preston had had with Spezi a few days before, which the detectives had intercepted in a wiretap. ''He threatened me with arrest if I didn't tell him what we were really doing as journalists and what the conversations were really about," Preston says.

At the end of the three-hour interrogation, Mignini told Preston his indictment would be temporarily suspended so that he could leave Italy but that it would be reinstated later.

''I had already decided not to assert journalistic privilege," says Preston. ''It's one thing to make a stand for freedom of the press in the US. I didn't feel like going to jail in Italy on principle."

According to Preston, several prominent judges in Italy have publicly criticized Mignini. Still, the experience has shattered Preston's sense of security about a country he lived in for four years and where several of his novels are set. ''I feel very pained that I may not be able to return to Italy," he says. ''While I am safe and sound back here in America, Spezi is still at grave risk. I was planning to go for the publication of our book in April. Now I don't dare set foot in the country."

Since returning to Maine, Preston has appealed to US Senator Susan Collins for help. A Collins spokesperson told Preston that the senator has given it her highest priority and has asked the State Department to find out what evidence Italian authorities have against Preston.

Preston also wrote to online literary organizations and bloggers, who posted his indictment story on their sites. Spezi sent the posting from the International Thriller Writers, an association of 150 prominent authors including Preston, to the Italian media. Within days, Italy's two largest newspapers carried prominent stories about Preston's interrogation and the support he has received from the online writing community.

Meanwhile, Preston is translating ''Dolci Colline di Sangue" into English and is in daily contact with Spezi. The translated book is projected for 2007 publication.

In an e-mail translated by Preston, Spezi wrote that he has been barred from writing about the Monster of Florence in his old newspaper, La Natione. He's engaged two lawyers, which he says has been ruinously expensive.

Last week, Spezi said, he discovered a microphone and transmitter in his car. He wrote: ''On the one hand I feel like I'm trapped inside a film of ''The Trial" by Kafka, remade by Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. On the other hand, I am afraid -- afraid of what tomorrow might bring. To live with fear is an ugly thing. I am sleeping badly and I am afraid every time the doorbell rings."

An employee with Mignini's office said Mignini could not comment on the case. The Globe's requests for interviews with the Italian minister of the interior, Ispettore Castelli, went unanswered.

Preston's other world -- that of imagined crime -- continues unimpeded. His newest thriller ''The Book of the Dead," co-written with longtime collaborator Lincoln Child, will be out in June. As for his identity as an international writer and the freedom he expects to go with that privilege?

''I never expected them [Italian authorities] to go as far as they did," says Preston. ''And I felt that, as an American and a fairly prominent journalist and author, they would leave me alone. I was wrong."
Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

WOW!! Ok, I am starting to see why the Knox camp have their concerns....Blimey! There you are, an ordinary guy writing a book and then all this cr@p happens!!!
Thanks for this Standing Tall - definitely food for thought....

eddie wrote:This doesn't make the Knox camp look very mature really does it? It looks far better for her if her camp remain dignified.

I agree it doesnt but reading above and below....the man is an oddball....Chris Mellas did mention to me that Tom Cruise bought the film rights to a book about this man and that story....

I never really looked for it but I just googled his name with Tom's and came up with this:

http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.2446098.0.tom_cruise_film_a_threat_to_truth.php

Standing Tall wrote:

eddie wrote:This doesn't make the Knox camp look very mature really does it? It looks far better for her if her camp remain dignified.

Eddie that Mignini guy is weird.

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2006/03/18/trapped_in_his_own_thriller/

Trapped in his own thriller
Life was fine for Douglas Preston as he worked on his latest book.Then he became part of the story.

By Jessica Brilliant Keener, Globe Correspondent | March 18, 2006

Douglas Preston, the best-selling thriller writer, left his home in coastal Maine to vacation in Italy with his family in February. Two weeks into the trip, Preston was summonsed to appear before Judge Giuliano Mignini in Perugia. He was given an official warning for perjury, false testimony, and withholding evidence. ''The judge verbally accused me of planting evidence, and of being an accessory to murder after the fact, which scared the hell out of me," he says by phone.

The charges are related to a nonfiction book Preston has co-written about a serial killer known as the Monster of Florence, who murdered and mutilated 14 people in the hills of Florence from 1974 to 1985. The case is one of the longest, most expensive criminal investigations in Italian history. In ''Dolci Colline di Sangue" (''Sweet Bloody Hills"), which will be published in Italy next month, Preston and his Italian coauthor, crime journalist Mario Spezi, criticize Mignini for the way he is running the Monster of Florence investigation. According to Preston, Mignini believes the killings were the work of a Satanic sect, dating to the Middle Ages, that needed female body parts as offerings to the devil in Black Masses. Preston and Spezi think this theory is hogwash and have said so. Preston says Spezi, who covered the crimes during the '80s, is also being investigated for a murder the police believe is related to the case, as a way to intimidate him.

In 2004 Spezi appeared on Italian television and ridiculed Mignini's investigation. Shortly after, on Nov. 18, police showed up at Spezi's apartment in Florence at 6 in the morning and seized his papers, computer, and the book manuscript. The search warrant, signed by Mignini, stated that Spezi was under investigation for 18 crimes labeled ''A" through ''R," all unspecified and listed as ''segreto" (''secret"). According to Preston, Spezi has never been told what these crimes are.

In response, Preston contacted PEN International, a writers association whose mission includes fighting intimidation of journalists. In January 2005, after an investigation by PEN's London office, Sara Whyatt, program director for PEN's Writers in Prison Committee, sent Mignini and the Italian prosecutor a letter of protest on behalf of Spezi. After that, the police returned much of the coauthors' material, and Preston and Spezi finished the book.

Preston's publisher, Ornella Robbiati of RCS Libri, says she's not happy about the situation and doesn't want to be involved. ''Journalist Spezi and [the] main police investigator hate each other," says Robbiati, whose publishing company is Italy's largest. ''Why? I don't know. It's a complicated matter, this Monster of Florence. If they [Preston and Spezi] think they have discovered something useful to police and law, they should say something without insulting police and judges -- but it sounds too personal in my opinion, now."

At police headquarters in Italy in February, Preston says Mignini replayed a telephone conversation Preston had had with Spezi a few days before, which the detectives had intercepted in a wiretap. ''He threatened me with arrest if I didn't tell him what we were really doing as journalists and what the conversations were really about," Preston says.

At the end of the three-hour interrogation, Mignini told Preston his indictment would be temporarily suspended so that he could leave Italy but that it would be reinstated later.

''I had already decided not to assert journalistic privilege," says Preston. ''It's one thing to make a stand for freedom of the press in the US. I didn't feel like going to jail in Italy on principle."

According to Preston, several prominent judges in Italy have publicly criticized Mignini. Still, the experience has shattered Preston's sense of security about a country he lived in for four years and where several of his novels are set. ''I feel very pained that I may not be able to return to Italy," he says. ''While I am safe and sound back here in America, Spezi is still at grave risk. I was planning to go for the publication of our book in April. Now I don't dare set foot in the country."

Since returning to Maine, Preston has appealed to US Senator Susan Collins for help. A Collins spokesperson told Preston that the senator has given it her highest priority and has asked the State Department to find out what evidence Italian authorities have against Preston.

Preston also wrote to online literary organizations and bloggers, who posted his indictment story on their sites. Spezi sent the posting from the International Thriller Writers, an association of 150 prominent authors including Preston, to the Italian media. Within days, Italy's two largest newspapers carried prominent stories about Preston's interrogation and the support he has received from the online writing community.

Meanwhile, Preston is translating ''Dolci Colline di Sangue" into English and is in daily contact with Spezi. The translated book is projected for 2007 publication.

In an e-mail translated by Preston, Spezi wrote that he has been barred from writing about the Monster of Florence in his old newspaper, La Natione. He's engaged two lawyers, which he says has been ruinously expensive.

Last week, Spezi said, he discovered a microphone and transmitter in his car. He wrote: ''On the one hand I feel like I'm trapped inside a film of ''The Trial" by Kafka, remade by Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. On the other hand, I am afraid -- afraid of what tomorrow might bring. To live with fear is an ugly thing. I am sleeping badly and I am afraid every time the doorbell rings."

An employee with Mignini's office said Mignini could not comment on the case. The Globe's requests for interviews with the Italian minister of the interior, Ispettore Castelli, went unanswered.

Preston's other world -- that of imagined crime -- continues unimpeded. His newest thriller ''The Book of the Dead," co-written with longtime collaborator Lincoln Child, will be out in June. As for his identity as an international writer and the freedom he expects to go with that privilege?

''I never expected them [Italian authorities] to go as far as they did," says Preston. ''And I felt that, as an American and a fairly prominent journalist and author, they would leave me alone. I was wrong."
Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

According to Preston, Mignini believes the killings were the work of a Satanic sect, dating to the Middle Ages, that needed female body parts as offerings to the devil in Black Masses. Preston and Spezi think this theory is hogwash and have said so. Preston says Spezi, who covered the crimes during the '80s, is also being investigated for a murder the police believe is related to the case, as a way to intimidate him.

this is not looking good for them!!!!

I must tell you that in Portugal spoke about them as the murders

I hope police and the judge have strong proves to inocent them or to jail them

Justicy must be done and a girl was murder

Cartwheels??
This girl is odd.

eddie wrote:Cartwheels??
This girl is odd.

And the splits too

An Italian man accused of killing British student Meredith Kercher said he was "a fan of arms and knives", a court in Perugia has heard.

Police officer Daniele Moscatelli said Raffaele Sollecito, 24, made the remark when he was being questioned by police.

He also had a "long" knife in his pocket, the office said, but it is not thought to be the weapon used to kill 21-year-old Ms Kercher in 2007.

Mr Sollecito and American Amanda Knox, 21, deny the murder.

Last year, a third man Rudy Guede pleaded guilty to the killing and was sentenced to 30 years in jail.

Mr Moscatelli told the court that Mr Sollecito looked "quite confused and nervous" during his questioning by police in the hours after the murder.

Another police officer, Fabio D'Astolto, told the court that in the same period Ms Knox "was nervously walking up and down the hallway, bringing both hands to her head and hitting it".

Both defendants attended the hearing on Friday. Ms Knox ignored questions shouted at her by reporters during a break, but her stepfather, Chris Mellas, said she was "doing OK".

Prosecutors say Ms Kercher was killed during a violent sex attack by Ms Knox, Mr Sollecito and Guede.

They maintain there is DNA evidence on a knife and on Miss Kercher's bra allegedly linking Mr Sollecito to her death.

9:49am UK, Saturday March 14, 2009

Amanda Knox has claimed in court that she had was hit by Italian police during questioning over Meredith Kercher's murder.


Knox, 21, stood up in the Perugia court and made the allegation despite police and official interpreters present during her questioning all denying the suggestion.

The American suspect's claim comes as Italian police officers who investigated Miss Kercher's murder continue giving evidence at the trial of Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito.

Knox told the court she had given the same version of events to police for several hours.

But, she added: "I was called a stupid liar. I received slaps to the head, I really did. I'm sorry, but it's true."

Reporting from Perugia, reporter Nick Pisa said: "Trembling and emotional, the American said that she was 'cuffed on the head' at a police station.

"She also said she was told to 'try to remember something else' before blaming the murder on an innocent bar owner, Patrick Lumumba."

Mr Lumumba is bringing a slander case against Knox after he was arrested, held and then released without charge.

Testifying to the courthouse on Friday, police officers said both defendants had looked nervous when they were brought in for questioning over the fatal stabbing of Miss Kercher in November 2007.

Sollecito had carried a knife to the police station and his co-defendant Knox had looked nervous and repeatedly hit her head with her hands, the officers claimed.

Police officer Daniele Moscatelli told a court in Perugia, central Italy, that Raffaele Sollecito looked "quite confused and nervous" during the questioning in the hours that followed the murder.

He was carrying a "long" knife in his pocket, which is not believed to have been the murder weapon.

Another police officer, Fabio D'Astolto, said during his testimony that American suspect Amanda Knox "was nervously walking up and down the hallway bringing both hands to her head and hitting it".

Knox and Sollecito are being tried on charges of murder and sexual violence over the killing of Miss Kercher, who was found dead in the apartment she shared with Knox.

Both have denied any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors allege that Miss Kercher was killed during what began as a sex game, with Sollecito holding her by the shoulders from behind while Knox touched her with the point of a knife.

They say a third man, Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede, tried to sexually assault Miss Kercher and then Miss Knox fatally stabbed her in the throat.

Guede was convicted of murder in a separate trial last year and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Both Sollecito and Knox attended the hearing on Friday, walking into the courtroom escorted by police. They exchanged smiles at the end of the session.

Knox declined to answer questions called out to her by reporters during a break, but her stepfather, Chris Mellas, said she was "doing OK".

Mr Mellas told reporters in the courtroom he had advised his daughter to make good notes during the trial sessions to help defend herself.

I'm having doubts about this now

Jennifer wrote:I'm having doubts about this now

So am I Jennifer. Lets hope justice is done in this case.

Krisy22 wrote:

Jennifer wrote:I'm having doubts about this now

So am I Jennifer. Lets hope justice is done in this case.

could be just the press getting it wrong again. wont be the first time and the last time i saw a cute babe done for something was that amy fisher case.

4:12pm UK, Monday March 16, 2009

Nick Pisa, in Perugia
A barman jailed on suspicion of murdering Meredith Kercher after being framed by Amanda Knox has been awarded just £7,340 damages by the Italian state.



Diya 'Patrick' Lumumba, 38, was arrested after Knox, 21, told police that he had killed Meredith and that she had "covered her ears to cover up her screams" as he did so.

He was later cleared of any involvement in the murder.

Two weeks ago, Mr Lumumba presented his case and asked for £462,000 damages, insisting that his life had "been ruined" as a result.

At the time, court officials said they thought the request was "excessive".

Following the outcome of the damages ruling, Mr Lumumba's lawyer Carlo Pacelli stormed: "This is objectively iniquitous and we will be appealing the decision.

"The figure that has been awarded is absolutely injust - although it should be said that no figure can ever repair the damage that my client has suffered as a result of this case.

"He was incorrectly imprisoned for two weeks, his private life and his business life has suffered as a result and he has been given the miserly compensation of just 8,000 euros.

"This figure does not take into account the damage to his business, the damage to his health and the damage to his image."

The Court of Appeal in Perugia said in its verdict that the sum of 8,000 euros more than adequately covered the damage to the image and financial loss suffered.

Mr Lumumba was dragged from his bed by armed police in a dawn raid on in front of his shocked wife and son after Knox named him as the killer of Miss Kercher. He was held for two weeks before being released without charge.

She was found semi-naked and with her throat cut in her bedroom of the house she shared with Knox and two other women in the Italian town of Perugia in November 2007.

Knox is jointly accused with her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, of murdering and sexually assaulting Miss Kercher, 21.

The trial in Perugia has heard how Knox named Mr Lumumba saying: "He's bad, He did it. He killed her", while being questioned at the city's police station.

As a result of what she said, Mr Lumumba is also bringing a separate claim for slander against her in a case which is running concurrently with her trial and in which he is claiming damages of £1m.

Last October, a third defendant - 21-year-old Ivory Coast national Rudy Guede - was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years for sexually assaulting and murdering Miss Kercher.

The Leeds University student from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in Italy as part of a year long exchange programme with her European Studies degree and had only been in Perugia two months when she was murdered.

2:52pm UK, Saturday March 21, 2009
Amanda Knox visited a supermarket early on the morning Meredith Kercher's body was found, despite telling police she was in bed until 10am, a witness has claimed.

Testifying in a Perugia court, store manager Marco Quintavalle confirmed he believed Amanda Knox was the blue-eyed girl who had been waiting to enter his shop when he opened it at 7:45am on November 2, 2007.

Reporter Nick Pisa told Sky News: "Knox has always insisted she was at the house of her boyfriend, co-defendent Raffaele Sollecito, that morning and that she got up around 10am to go home and take a shower.

"This is being put into question by the court evidence of Mr Quintavalle, who also said in court that the girl he identified as Amanda Knox walked to the cleaning product section of the store.

"He couldn't remember if she had bought anything.

"It is of interest that when police searched Sollecito's house days after the murder, they found a receipt for cleaning products from the shop where Knox was allegedly seen."

Detectives believe bleach and cloths found under the sink at Sollecito's house were used to clean up the murder weapon - a knife - and the murder scene itself after Miss Kercher's death on the night of November 1.

Mr Quintavalle told the court: "I was inside and I opened the shutters of my supermarket at 7.45am.

"Outside I saw a girl waiting to come inside, she came in and I was struck by how pale she looked and also by her clear blue eyes.

"She had a hat and jeans on but what struck me was how pale she looked and the colour of her blue eyes, I can still see them in front of me now.

"She was young, around 20 or 21 years old, she came in and went to the section at the back of the supermarket on the left where there are the cleaning products.

"I can't remember if she bought anything. A few hours later I heard about the murder and then a few days later I saw Amanda's picture in the newspaper and I recognised her as the same girl.

"The shape of the face was the same, as was the nose, she was pretty. For me the girl in the newspapers was the same girl who had come into my supermarket at 7.45 in the morning."

When asked by trial judge Giancarlo Massei if he recognised the girl from the supermarket in court Mr Quintavalle said: "It's her, I'm sure of it." There was no reaction from Knox.

Both Sollecito and Knox have denied wrongdoing in the case.

Meanwhile, detectives in Perugia are continuing to investigate a second break-in at the house where Miss Kercher was killed.

Local media have reported that a mattress and pillows were taken - perhaps in a bid to show how easy it was to access the crime scene - but this could not be confirmed by police.

It is not looking good for her is it?

eddie wrote:It is not looking good for her is it?

I was just going to say that Its not looking good at all.

2:34pm UK, Saturday March 28, 2009
Nick Pisa, Perugia

An Italian tramp has told a court he saw Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend close to the house where British student Meredith Kercher was murdered.


Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito arrive at court



Antonio Curatolo, 52, said he saw Knox and Raffaele Sollecito ''chatting animatedly'' on a basketball court in a square close to the house.

He told the court he saw them ''around five times'' between 9.30pm and midnight the night that Meredith was murdered.

Knox and Sollecito have always claimed they were at home the night Meredith was killed in November 2007 and did not leave until the following morning.



Meredith Kercher

When asked if he recognised the two people he had seen in court, he said he could and pointed out Knox and Sollecito who were sitting just a few yards away from him.

According to an autopsy report police and prosecutors believe Meredith was murdered between 9pm and 11pm on November 1, 2007.

She was found semi naked and with her throat cut in the bedroom of the house she shared with Knox in Perugia, Italy.

The trial has already heard from prosecutor Giuliano Mignini that she was murdered after refusing to take part in a drug fuelled sex game.



The murder scene



Knox, dressed in a lilac jumper and blue jeans exchanged glances with Sollecito in court and during breaks smiled and joked with warders guarding her.

The court earlier heard from a woman who said she had heard a ''prolonged'' scream coming from the house the night Meredith was killed and imitated it for the court.

Nara Capezzali said the scream made her ''skin crawl'' and still troubled her now.

Knox's mother Edda Mellas has arrived to give her support but will not be allowed to attend court as she is listed as a witness.

Bloody hell! She is sounding more and more guilty each time I read about her!

We havent heard a thing back from Chris.....hmmm

Ambersuz wrote:Bloody hell! She is sounding more and more guilty each time I read about her!

We havent heard a thing back from Chris.....hmmm

Have we heard from the Defence yet?

4:50pm UK, Friday April 03, 2009

Nick Pisa, In Perugia, Italy

Amanda Knox covered her head with her arms as graphic photographs and video of British student Meredith Kercher's body were shown in court.


Outside court: Knox has maintained she is innocent throughout the trial


Evidence from pathologist Luca Lalli was held in private without any media or public present after a ruling by the judge, following a request from the Kercher family.

Court sources said American Knox, 21, did not look at the images as they were shown on a video screen and kept her head down while her co-accused and former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, glanced at them sporadically.

Knox's mother Edda Mellas, who is in Perugia, Italy, to support her daughter said during a break in hearings: "The images upset her too much and she didn't watch them."

Mr Lalli also told the murder trial Meredith died "around 11pm" on the night of November 1, 2007, and added her body showed evidence of "sexual activity but could not prove if there had been violence".

Both Knox and Sollecito deny killing 21-year-old Meredith.



Meredith was killed in November 2007



Francesco Maresca, the Kercher family lawyer, had requested the evidence be heard in private "out of respect" for Meredith's memory although he said he did not object to audio being heard.

However, trial judge Giancarlo Massei ruled this out and the evidence was heard in private.

Last year images of Meredith's body were shown on Telenorba, an Italian TV station based in Bari, close to where Sollecito is originally from.

At the time, the Kercher family issued a strong condemnation and prosecutors opened an investigation into how the station obtained the footage.

During the closed door hearings, Mr Maresca said it could not be "ruled out that hasty sexual activity, which would not leave signs of resistance, had taken place after she had been threatened with a knife".

Besides Mr Lalli, the court will hear from other medical experts who will explain the wounds that led to Meredith's death through blood loss and choking on her own blood.



Sollecito is also on trial for murder



Also due to testify is Carlo Maria Scotto di Rinaldi, the owner of an underwear shop where Knox was seen buying lingerie with Sollecito, shortly after Meredith was killed.

CCTV footage shows her holding up the underwear and the owner has said he heard Knox say: "I can put this on and have wild sex with you."

Prosecutors are using character evidence such as this to build up a picture of a "cold and unemotional" Knox which they say points to her being the killer.

Bar owner Patrick Lumumba, 38, will also give evidence as will Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Herman Guede, 21, who was jailed for 30 years for murder and sexual assault last October.

The trial began in January and is sitting on an ad hoc basis on Fridays and Saturdays - usual in Italian cases - as one of Sollecito's lawyers is an MP and involved in parliamentary business during the week.



Guede is due to give evidence



Judge Giancarlo Massei and prosecutor Giuliano Mignini are also involved in other trials running concurrently. The court has already heard from more than 40 witnesses out of the listed 250 and a verdict is expected in the autumn.

Last week the court heard from neighbour Nara Capezzali who described how she had heard a "long prolonged scream" coming from the house the night Meredith was murdered which made her "flesh crawl".

Meredith, a Leeds University student from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in Italy as part of a year-long exchange programme with her European Studies degree and had only been in Perugia for two months when she was killed.

Surely if Rudy Herman Guede is giving eveidence he will say who was there on the night with him. I cant see him hiding anything as he has nothing to lose anymore so either Amanda and her boyfriend were there or they were not.

Jennifer wrote:Surely if Rudy Herman Guede is giving eveidence he will say who was there on the night with him. I cant see him hiding anything as he has nothing to lose anymore so either Amanda and her boyfriend were there or they were not.

Well that's what I thought Jennifer! Looks like a pretty foregone conclusion.

Jennifer wrote:Surely if Rudy Herman Guede is giving eveidence he will say who was there on the night with him. I cant see him hiding anything as he has nothing to lose anymore so either Amanda and her boyfriend were there or they were not.

This is the latest!

'More Than One Person' Attacked Meredith

4:09pm UK, Saturday April 04, 2009

Nick Pisa, in Perugia
Murdered British student Meredith Kercher was sexually assaulted and attacked by more than one person, a forensic scientist has told a court in Perugia.

Prosecutors say that Meredith, 21, was found semi-naked and with her throat cut in her bedroom after refusing to take part in a drug-fuelled sex game.

Her American flatmate Amanda Knox, 21, and Knox's former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, are accused of murder and sexual violence but both deny the charges.

Because of the graphic nature of the evidence, the hearing in Perugia, Italy, where Meredith was killed, was heard in private after a request by the family's lawyer, Francesco Maresca, was accepted by the judge.

Outside forensic scientist Dr Vicenza Liviero said: "I told the court that in my opinion there were signs of more than one person being involved and there was also evidence of sexual violence."

Mr Maresca said: "The medical experts confirmed to the court the cruel signs of the wounds Meredith suffered and the fact that more than on person was involved.

"Mauro Marchionni, a gynaecologist, told the court in his experience he had not seen such wounds before on a person who had consented to sex.

"The court also heard that with so many bruises and wounds on her body from a knife, hands, suffocation a lone attacker would have had to have three hands or four hands."

For the hearing graphic photos of Meredith's body were shown in court, which led to Mr Maresca's appeal to judge Giancarlo Massei to have the hearing in private.

Rudy Guede, 21, who was jailed for 30 years last October for the murder and sexual assault of Meredith, also appeared in court after being called as a prosecution witness.

However, after confirming his name, date and place of birth he told the judge that he would not be answering any questions as was his right under Italian law after being found guilty.

He was then led out of court by prison guards without looking at Knox and Sollecito, who had given him the briefest of glances when he had been led into court.

Guede's lawyer Valter Biscotti said: "The prosecution have always insisted that Guede is a liar and now they have called him as a witness in this trial, that's why he chose not to speak.

"Rudy has written a letter in which he explains further his motives for not speaking but he will speak at a later date, when his appeal is heard and he will confirm he had nothing to do with this."

Jennifer wrote:Surely if Rudy Herman Guede is giving eveidence he will say who was there on the night with him. I cant see him hiding anything as he has nothing to lose anymore so either Amanda and her boyfriend were there or they were not.

This is very odd!

Guede was in court and he had the chance to say they were there and didnt! He says he's innocent and if they had been there why hasnt he said so to get him off?? Whats going on??